REPUBLICAN BOO-BOO ON BEAU BIDEN

By Celia Cohen
Grapevine Political Writer

The Delaware Republican Party is running radio
advertising against Joseph R. "Beau" Biden III, the
Democratic candidate for attorney general, that looks to
be backfiring by causing unrest among its own
membership.

Even Terry A. Strine, the Republican state chair,
seems uncomfortable about it.

The spot, which began running Monday throughout the
state, is intended to hammer home the Republicans'
repeated message that Biden, the senator's son, lacks
the experience for the office.

An announcer notes there is no requirement for the
state's attorney general to be a lawyer and asks
listeners to "call your state senator or state
representative" to support legislation that would
establish a minimum qualification of five years as a
member of the Delaware bar.

"This law makes a lot of sense," the announcer says.
"But if the new law passes, Beau Biden wouldn't meet the
legal requirements to serve. You see, Beau Biden hasn't
been a Delaware lawyer for five years."

This is the truth, but not necessarily the whole
truth, because Biden's legal experience goes back
further than his admission to the Delaware bar four
years ago in 2002.

Since his graduation from Syracuse law school in
1994, Biden has clerked for a federal judge, worked for
the U.S. Justice Department -- including a stay in
Kosovo -- served as a federal prosecutor in Philadelphia
and practiced law in Wilmington. He is also a JAG
officer in the Delaware National Guard.

Irritated Republicans are not objecting to the knock
on Biden's level of experience, however. They think the
best thing that Ferris W. Wharton, their candidate, has
going is his contrasting background of a 26-year history
as a prosecutor, including time as the chief deputy
attorney general and assistant U.S. attorney.

Instead, there is a range of objections to the radio
spot itself, such as: It leaves a mistaken impression
that Biden's candidacy can be stopped with legislation,
even though changing the requirements for the office
would take a constitutional amendment that cannot be
adopted before the election because it has to be
approved by two sessions of the General Assembly. It
pushes legislation that has not been thought out. It was
not Republican money well-spent.

"Ferris Wharton is a great candidate, but help like
this he doesn't need. Furthermore, Ferris is such a
qualified candidate, he doesn't need to go negative in
any way, shape or form. It could backfire big time," A.
Judson Bennett, a Lewes Republican, wrote to his Coastal
Conservative Network with its 3,800 e-mail addresses.

Bennett said he received about 100 e-mails unhappy
about the advertising.

John S. Bonk, the Christiana-Mill Creek Republican
chair, called the matter "kind of an internal squabble"
that he was reluctant to discuss, but he acknowledged he
had his doubts, too.

"Does five years make you a credible attorney
general? That's an arbitrary number that someone picked
out. I don't know. There's a lot of loose ends that need
to be tied up," Bonk said.

It seems unclear exactly who authorized the spot.
David A. Crossan, the Republican executive director, was
involved in the initial discussions but was with his
wife, who was having a baby, as matters proceeded.

Terry Strine, the state chair, said he was not
hands-on for this one and would have preferred for the
spot to be aired by an independent political
organization and not the party operation, which has a
broader responsibility than a single candidate.

"My goal is to help elect Republicans -- plural,"
Strine said.

No one at Republican headquarters would say what the
spot cost, where it was airing and for how long. It is
believed to be a $14,000 or $15,000 buy, lasting about
10 days, on WDEL, WILM, WDOV, WGMD and WJBR.

As for the Biden campaign, it probably thinks this
briar patch that the Republicans are making about the
candidates' experience looks a lot like home. When
Biden's father was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972,
he was a first-term New Castle County councilman who
constitutionally was not qualified to take his oath
until he turned 30 on Nov. 20.

In addition, Joe Biden was running against the most
experienced man in Delaware politics in U.S. Sen. J.
Caleb Boggs, a Republican who had been a congressman and
two-term governor and held the record at the time as the
longest-serving statewide officeholder.

In a political campaign, the experience counts, but
the vote counts more.